When our nephew was little, he called hot dogs "dot dots." Our niece used to call suckers "pollipops." Adrian and I have continued to use these words when we talk to each other. We're not trying to be cutesy. We just love invoking the memories of when our nephew and niece were little.
Oo has a few specific mispronunciations that Adrian and I never correct -- she says "gank you" instead of "thank you," and she calls skunks "stunks." She'll learn the correct pronunciations soon enough. But hopefully, not too soon. For now, we savor the sound of her little voice saying these words.
T hasn't been talking for very long, and so, much of what he says is mispronounced. Oo, Adrian and I can understand him, but his language sounds like baby babble to most everyone else. Already, however, there is a word that will forever remind us of when he was really little.
Out of seemingly nowhere, T began pointing to the kitchen cupboard and yelling, "Blue! Blue!" over and over again. I rummaged through the cupboard with him to find out what he was asking for. "Do you want this bowl? Do you want a sippy cup? Do you want the goldfish snack box?"
"No! Blue!" It took me two days to figure it out.
A container of candy (mostly Halloween remnants) is also in that cupboard. But he couldn't have been asking for that -- T doesn't really like candy. In fact, the only piece of candy that he ever finished was a Dum-Dum sucker. A blue Dum-Dum sucker.
Ah, mystery solved. And now that T knows we understand his request, he is always asking for a "blue." He doesn't always eat them -- most of the time he just carries it around all day, eventually dropping it to the floor.
Kids grow up way too fast, and it won't be long before T uses the word "sucker." But as for Adrian and me, I'm sure we will always say blue.
